Bond of brothers
by Zarunak
Summary: Naruto and Rock Lee were like brothers from an early age, both outcasts and both alone. when Naruto was atacked by drunken villagers both boys made a choice. they will find fame and power somewhere else! no pairings yet, NO GAY PAIRINGS! THEY ARE STRAIGHT
1. The Begining

**This is the start of a new tale, filled with odd moments, overpowered main characters, bad puns and finally…two brothers. Brothers not by blood but by spirit, brothers through thick and thin, in health and in sickness…wait but one of them doesn't ever get sick, hmm…well…anyway, these two boys formed a bond like brothers and they swore vengeance on those who had wronged them.**

**Bond of Brothers**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I own the St. Crispin's day speech.**

**-**

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers!"

"Stop quoting long dead playwrights Minato and give the order!" yelled a certain white haired old man.

"This coming from the man that has an introduction dance?"

"He is right, we know what's going to happen, let's get to fighting." Came a response from a man with spiky silver hair, and one eye covered by his hitai-ate.

"Very well then, TO BATTLE!"

With a roar the assembled ninja jumped over the roof tops and into the forest to battle the deadly beast, which threatened their homes and families.

- seven years latter

"We have a new student joining our class today; he was dropped here from the class ahead of you by his teacher because he fell a little bit behind. However I don't want you to judge him by this, I want you to all make him feel at home." The man with the strange horizontal scar on his face told his class of ninja students.

"Hello, I am Rock Lee, I, uh, I'll be joining your class from now on." He said somewhat awkwardly.

"hn, another dobe." A boy with black hair and eyes said quietly in the back of the room.

Lee walked up the first isle looking for a place to sit, finally finding a spot beside a boy with messy blond hair, "may I sit here?"

"Sure, and don't let the teme bug you, he doesn't like anyone."

"NARUTO-BAKA don't you dare insult Sasuke-kun!" screamed a pair of banshees and began to fight over the dark haired brooder.

"So I take it that he is his class's rookie of the year."

"Yup,"

"Oh, are those girls going to be alright?"

"They do this every day," he shot a glance at them discretely and whispered quietly to lee, "also nether is a good enough ninja to actually hurt anyone."

"WHAT WAS THAT NARUTO!!?"

Lee looked around; this was such a strange group.

-

Naruto was walking home, class was done and everyone left.

Thump

He paused, where did that sound come from

Thump, thump, thump.

There it was again, he turned around, where was it coming from?

Thump, thump

There! That way, he ran towards the sound.

As he arrived at the location he stood and watched. I was that new boy from his class.

187 thump,

188 thump,

189 thump,

190 thump,

"What are you doing, Lee?"

Lee froze in mid-kick, he turned, "training, I can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu because of a birth defect so I have to master taijutsu if I want to be a ninja."

"Oh," Naruto thought this over, "can I join you?"

"Sure, I still have 310 more kicks to go, and then I'm going to run five laps around the village and climb the hokage monument without climbing tools, or charka."

"I don't think I could do all that."

"Don't worry, after some hard training you will be able to do this with your eyes closed." Lee assured his new friend.

"Sure…whatever you say."

-

"It's hard to believe isn't it, that it's been only one year, hey have changed so much."

"Hai, Hokage-sama, I was a little doubtful about having lee join my class but he has really been a good influence on Naruto."

"yes, and he has benefited too, they have both grown stronger both in body and in mind, its good to see, though I wish lee hadn't started helping Naruto with his pranks."

"The monument hasn't been pained in over three months though."

"I'm not concerned about the monument, but they apparently found a way to put glue in my hat."

"They what!"

"Don't worry; I didn't get to be the hokage by falling for such easy traps. However I'm surprised that an eight-year old and his nine-year old friend could do that, their academy marks don't show it."

"True but their taijutsu is the best in the class, I've never seen such stamina and skill amongst such young children, they might be better than me when I was a genin."

The old man chuckled, "that is good, they will make strong ninja, and we need more of those."

He smiled as he thought about the two orphan boys; they had changed over the last couple years. He had been shocked to find Naruto wearing something other than that old orange jumpsuit, his current outfit closely resembled Lee's own white gi, probably just some clothes that Lee had grown out of. Lee had also changed a little, his speech wile still formal had developed a clearely more relaxed maner to it and his seamed more like the child he realy was.

-

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

"Hey, Lee I'm hungry, let's go get some ramen."

"I'd prefer curry, 1969, it's better for you."

"Ok, but lets get take out; the shop owners don't like me much."

"That's ridiculous, what's not to like about you, you're kind, generous and very friendly."

Naruto grinned, "You know you're the only person who could say that with a straight face, oniisan."

"I'll do another thirty pushups and then come bring some to your apartment." He hated to admit it but he had seen the looks his adopted little brother got from the locals.

Naruto turned and walked back into the village from the secluded training area. As he walked towards his apartment Naruto shivered, it wasn't a cold day yet there was a strange feeling on the back of his neck, something was wrong.

And then they came.

Screaming foul curses and terrible threats they came, violent, drunk, ninja. It didn't take long, one small group of chunin, drunk after a big party to celebrate the end of a mission, had drawn others who had held back until then, soon the poor boy was swarmed by close to a hundred various civilians and low-ranking ninja.

-

Lee was walking towards the curry shop when he heard some commotion, there were people yelling curses and others were running towards the crowd, this could not be good.

Forgetting about the curry he turned and ran towards the crowd, praying under his breath that he was wrong a bout what was happening.

His prayers went unheard.

There in the center of a group of civilians and a couple drunken ninja was Naruto, covered in scratches and bruises, cowering in fear as the crowd yelled and jeered, edging his attackers on.

Without even slowing down he dived into the ring of attackers, blocking a thrown kunai with a swing of his hand. In moments those closest to his little brother were on the ground, knocked back by his furious kicks and punches.

"he's helping the demon, kill him!" came a cry from the crowd

"lee?"

"come on, Naruto get up, I cant do this alone."

"Get out of here they'll leave you alone."

"no way, you're like the little brother I never had, I'm not going to abandon you."

"Lee…"

"come on, lets get them." He said giving the downed boy a thumbs up.

"right."

-

"Hurry Hokage-sama, there are a large number of villagers attacking Naruto."

As the group of anbu and the elderly village leader arrived they were greeted with a shocking sight, a massive circle of villagers, civilian and ninja alike…all lying on the ground uncontious or clutching broken bones. And in the center of the battlefield stood two boys their movements swift and precise and their teamwork unflawed they mercilessly disassembled the last three chunin attacking them.

Then before their enemies could recover and before the old man could step foreword, one of them spun around and ran, even from the roof top the old man could tell that he was crying.

The other followed after a moment, running as fast as the wind to try and catch up to the quick blond.

"Hokage-sama, should we go stop them?"

"No let them sort things out, I doubt Naruto will listen to anyone other than his friend right now. They will return when they are ready."

-

"How could I have been so stupid," the old man berated himself once more The two boys had vanished completely, Konoha's trackers had said that they had run straight across the fire country border, and without someone requesting the mission there was no way that he could explain sending a tracker team after them.

**That's that, i recently had a poll in my other fanfiction whether or not I should post this idea, the result was that I should.**

**This is a trial chapter, to decide whether to continue or not, please review and tell me whether you like the idea, they most likely won't be returning to the village.**

**The idea is that they will be a pair of taijutsu specialists.**


	2. The Long Road

**Chapter 2: the long road**

**Disclaimer: if I still need to add one then my readers must be quite incompetent, this is a fan fiction, therefore it is fiction written by a fan and as such it is not done for profit or fame.**

**Alright, I have gotten 16 reviews as of my last check; that's enough.**

**Hopefully I'll continue getting reviews, however I would like to know whether you think that this will get more popular if I change the name to 'twin beasts of flame'?**

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"Three days…" an elderly man sat quietly behind a stack of papers in his office. It had been three days since the small boy who he saw as his grandson ran away from the village.

To make things even worse, the council had actually suggested making him a Nuke-nin, they had actually suggested something that moronic, he had to consciously restrain himself to not kill his former teammates for how they spoke about the poor child.

In the end he told them that doing so would be impossible as he was not actually a shinobi yet and if the village publicly named a seven-year-old a threat they would be seen as weak.

Maybe it was the suggestion of seeming weak that convinced them, or maybe it was the ungodly amounts of killing intent that dripped from his every word.

Still the boy had yet to return and the second boy who went with him was gone as well.

-XXX-

"wait…up…Naruto!" lee panted loudly between each word, he wasn't sure how his surrogate little brother was able to keep sprinting nonstop for five hours be he attributed it to a combination of charka and panic.

After sprinting for three hours and then running for two, and afterwards walking for at least four more hours, he finally collapsed.

Lee managed to crawl up to him before falling blissfully unconscious.

Naruto sat quietly, that had been the end. He had thought at first that there was something wrong with him, but after meeting lee he found that that was not the case. He then decided that now that whatever was wrong with him was gone then the villagers would stop hating him. He was wrong; they hated him just as much as ever before, maybe even more.

After today's, no yesterday's fight he was sure of it. There was nothing wrong with him, it was them…those villagers just hated him and they would never change.

There was only one thing left for him to do, run, leave, and escape from the torment.

And so he ran, and lee followed, why? Did he care, yes he cared, and he cared enough to protect him, enough to follow him out of the village where he had lived his entire life.

"A true friend, no," he amended himself, "a brother."

-XXX-

As he awoke, lee wondered where he was, his body ached more than after a hard day of training and he was cold, why was he lying on the grass in the middle of the forest. Then it all came back, the day, the fight, and the run.

Naruto! Where was he?

Lee jumped up looking all around to find the boy who was as close to him as a brother. Did he keep going? Did I lose him so soon after catching up!

"Hey, Lee you woke up! Great, I got some fire wood but I'm not sure how to light it."

The blond boy walked out of the forest, covered in cuts and bruises and what may have been bite marks.

"Naruto, what happened to you?" the older boy cried in a panic.

"I accidentally ran into some weasels while I was getting firewood. It's ok, I'm not hurt."

"What are you talking about you're bleeding, you need a doctor!"

"It's ok, I've never needed a doctor for stuff like that, and these scratches will be gone in a couple hours."

"A couple hours?" lee asked in a confused voice, "is that a kakkei Genkai?"

"What's that?"

Lee sweat dropped slightly, Naruto was definitely bad at paying attention. One explanation and some fire starting later, both boys were sitting around the fire.

"What are we going to do now? Lee what now, we left the village. What now," Naruto muttered under his breath while looking down.

"Hmm, I guess we are free to do whatever. We don't have to go to school, or follow rules. I guess we can do whatever we want to do, what do you want to do?"

"I want to be a ninja," answered the younger of the two in a muted voice.

Lee sighed, "me too."

Both sat calmly staring into the fire, for a long time.

"Ne, Oniisan, there were ninja before the hidden villages were founded right?" Naruto asked tentatively.

Lee suddenly sprung to his feet, "Yosh! You are right Naruto, we can become wandering ninja! We shall travel the world fighting evil and learning different kinds of Taijutsu!"

"Hai," the boy said enthusiastically, yet his brother could see something off. His eyes didn't shine with excitement like they usually would, and his voice seemed strained.

"Alright let's go! I can't wait to go…" lee began to walk off into the forest, until he suddenly collapsed to the ground, snoring loudly.

"Oniisan? Wow, he must have been more tired than I thought." Naruto yawned, "I guess I could use some rest too."

-XXX-

He awoke to find that he was lying on grass; there were forest sounds all around him and the smell of smoke was in the air. "32"

"Huh?"

"33"

He opened his eyes to see sunlight sneaking in through the forest canopy, illuminating the remains of a fire.

"34"

He sat up and turned his head to see Lee doing squats with his back to him.

"35"

"Lee why didn't you wake me up?"

Lee stopped doing squats and turned around, "I tried," Lee's left eye was swollen shut and purple with bruising.

"Oh, sorry about that."

"At least we know you're punches are strong," He commented with a grin.

"Sorry,"

"Come on, training time! We need to be strong to become great taijutsu masters, especially if we don't have anyone to guard us and help us grow strong. We have to look after each other and grow strong together. Only by working together can we succeed in accomplishing our goals!"

Shortly, both boys were doing pushups and sit-ups; it wasn't long before they completed their workout and encountered a new problem.

"I'm hungry."

"Me too,"

"Do you know how to hunt, Lee?"

"No…"

"Oh…well, how hard could it be!"

"Right, let's go!"

Hunting proved to be harder than anticipated as two small children, of eight and nine years old respectively, don't have the necessary training, or body mass that is needed for capturing an animal.

Luckily fishing is not as difficult, nor is gathering vegetables…however to fish you have to be patient, and to gather vegetables you have to know local plants.

Hence, the boys had nothing to eat.

To take their minds off of their hunger, they made a decision.

"Naruto, we should find a village, and then we can try to buy some food."

"We don't have any money though."

"Don't worry Naruto, we can think of something when we get there."

-XXX-

The boys had been walking for many hours and exhaustion had finally caught up to them.

Thump,

Lee collapsed face first into the dirt.

"Lee? Are you alright?"

Lee groaned and muttered something about heavenly curry; he was fast asleep.

Suddenly he heard a sound! At first he nearly panicked thinking of a place to hide; until he realized that whatever was going on had nothing to do with him and his brother.

Curiously he woke up Lee and began to sneak towards the sounds.

When the two boys got to where the sounds were originating from they found a small group of people being attacked by bandits. The bandits jeered and sent catcalls at their terrified victims.

Lee froze; feeling a strange emotion rising inside of him, witnessing such cruelty for no good reason caused his hands to shake with righteous fury.

A single glance at his surrogate little brother nearly made him collapse from fear, the boy's eyes where colder than ice and sharper than kunai. His entire frame was rigid, and lee could see the intense rage and hatred gathering inside him.

Seeing this change in his usually hyper, fun loving little brother caused lee to see red. The villagers had finally broken his heart, their hatred had stripped him of his innocence and he would never be he same again.

He didn't realize when he started moving; driven by rage alone.

In a blur both boys were among the bandits, punching, kicking, and smiting them to release their righteous fury. Blind to friend and foe as they were; they still managed to have perfect teamwork, blocking attacks launched at one another, countering quickly with devastating force.

-XXX-

The entire world was red; blood bounded in his ears, his hands and feet moved on their own accord. His fists struck flesh, bones broke under his heavy blows and his haunted blue eyes struck fear into the hearts of his foes.

A furious roundhouse kick shattered a jawbone, powerful jab broke a rib, and an openhanded strike tossed a badly beaten man into two of his friends.

As he twisted around to face his next target, he was nearly slashed with a sword but it was caught between Lee's palms. The younger boy flipped over his brother's back to deliver a two-legged kick to the man's nose.

The bandits began to move slower as doubt spread amongst the ranks.

Naruto's kicks grew more vicious as he received a cut across the forearm; his eyes turned to the man who had cut him. With a cry of rage he surged towards his target, his fist breaking the man's nose and his sweep taking the fool's legs out from under him.

Catching the sword as his newest victim caught it; he stabbed it deep into the man's heart.

Lee grabbed a man by the throat and drove his fist into his gut. His knee came up and struck the man's jaw and he finished with a bone-shattering axe-kick.

The bandits ran, they ran fast and blindly; their cries of fear could be heard long after they had vanished into the dense underbrush.

After they had finally gone completely, the two boys seamed to return to sanity, looking around at the carnage around them they fought not to throw up.

Seeing as they had not eaten in two days however; they merely gagged violently.

Through all this the small group of people that the bandits had been harassing watched quietly.

-XXX-

A loud slurping could be heard for miles around.

After some introductions and growling stomachs, the civilians had taken the two boys back to their home in a nearby village.

They had been in another town to see the fair and where on their way home when the bandits attacked.

After hearing that their saviors had not eaten in two days they had taken the two boys home for a good ht meal and a place to sleep. While at first Naruto had been nervous he eventually relaxed and finally smiled for the first time after leaving his former home.

The boys stayed in the village for several days and got some supplies for their journey and went on their way; further away from the place of their nightmares.

-XXX-

"Iruka-sensei, wake up!" the pink haired girl several rows up yelled in her loud shrill voice.

He sighed as he opened his eyes and got up, "alright, come on shuriken practice time.

The class followed, some were worried others annoyed, but almost all were confused about Iruka's recent attitude. Ever since those two idiots from their class had vanished somewhere, Iruka had been growing stranger. He developed a habit of being late for class, and when he did come he was almost always covered with burns scratches and bruises. He began to fall asleep during his own lessons and his temper had grown shorter and his punishments more sadistic. No one knew why this happened though some children swore that their parents had muttered something about him being enchanted by a demon.

Meanwhile the Hokage had grown distant from all but his grandson and Iruka; he refused to tolerate most of the villagers and there were rumors that a group that had been injured during some kind of fight several weeks ago, where refused medical attention on the Hokage's orders. Some had been outraged but the old man had stepped forward and roared that they should be glad that he wasn't having them executed for treason. The adults seamed to know more about what happened but they refused to tell the children anything.

Uchiha Sasuke frowned as he wondered about what had happened to those two, even if they were at the bottom of the academy; he knew that their taijutsu was incredible. He had planned on attempting to swallow his pride and join them for training, he felt that if he offered to help them improve their other fields they might help him on the road to power by sparing with him in taijutsu.

He sighed as he considered the loss of those two, they might be annoying but they had potential, and one cannot grow truly strong unless he has someone to compete with.

Iruka on the other hand was a different story all together. Sasuke knew what happened to his teacher, several days ago he found the man training himself nearly to death in the middle of the night at an abandoned training ground. Sasuke had confronted him and heard an awful story; Naruto was not popular in the village enough so that the other academy teachers intentionally tried to stunt his growth as a ninja. Iruka said that the sandaime Hokage had forbidden anyone from revealing the reason for this hatred to avoid the younger generation beginning to hate him as well, Sasuke had considered several options but decided that it was most likely irrelevant if the Hokage felt that the children didn't need to know. Also Iruka had said that several weeks ago Naruto had been attacked by a mob of drunks and idiots, however this time unlike the last, (Sasuke took this to mean that it happened often) Lee had come and tried to defend him. Together the two boys had defeated and humiliated their attackers. Then Naruto had run away and lee had chassed after him, most likely to comfort him. They hadn't returned. And the two people who were closest to Naruto had taken it quite hard, the Hokage had lost much of his respect for the people he ruled over and Iruka had decided that he would adopt Naruto's goal for himself and work to become the next Hokage.

Sasuke sighed once more and moved for his turn to throw his shuriken; his respect for his elders had diminished even more.

(A/N: yup in this story Sasuke is a good guy, I fact I'm going to write Sasuke the way that is pictured him at the start of the show: cool not broody. If you have a problem with this then tough luck)

-XXX-

After leaving the first village the brothers had gone from small village to small village; offering to do chores for food and shelter for the night. They continued this for almost two month before something happened.

"Hey Lee, I don't feel like we are getting anywhere with our training. We need to find someone to teach us."

"I am sorry little brother. However first we must survive, after all if we can find no food o eat how we can find a teacher." Lee answered.

Naruto suddenly stopped and turned towards another street and began to move faster.

"Is something wrong little brother?" lee had long ago realized that in addition to Naruto's great stamina, he had very strong senses. His natural instincts were impressive and after those first few tries he had become a skilled tracker and hunter.

"I hear something; I think some little girl lost her cat or something."

Lee smiled but didn't say anything; his little brother was such a sap when it came to people crying. He hated to see people crying and always did what he could to cheer them up. _'One day I am certain that you will be quite popular with girls because of that quality,'_ lee thought. Lee was really quite mature for his age when it came to his priories, he just rarely showed it; years of living with a charka molding disability had caused him to grow up quite fast and after he met his brother he had also taken on the responsibility of looking out for him.

True to his guess Naruto soon found a girl crying while her cat was sitting in a tree above her head.

Naruto stood staring at the tree as though it had betrayed him, "lee, do you think you could climb that tree well enough to get the cat?"

"No, it might fall."

Both boys stared at the tree speculatively.

Suddenly a figure moved with impressive speed and actually ran up the tree to the branch, where it grabbed the cat and jumped down.

The brothers were shocked to say the least at the sight of the man in front of them. He had messy grey hair and wore civilian clothing, however the part that effected them most was his right arm…or lack there of.

The elderly man's right arm had been hacked off just below the shoulder, though otherwise he was surprisingly health y and strong for his old age.

He calmly carried the cat in his one remaining arm and handed it to the little girl, "here you are, your kitty is safe." He had a kind voice though it was filled with some great sadness and regret.

The two boys stared at him in amazement; he had gotten into the tree, gotten the cat and gotten it back to the girl without breaking a sweat or breaking the branch.

The same thought ran through both boys' minds, 'he is so cool!'

As the man left they followed him in silence.

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**Well, this was going to be longer but I guess you will all have to wait until the next update. I felt it necessary to end here and post so that my readers wouldn't eat my face… don't ask how, I don't understand how ether.**

**Well here is the chapter hope u like it.**

**The story will hopefully update more often after I finish my 4 projects, 3 sets of questions that are severely overdue and get some reading done for English class…yeah I'm in hot water academically so it may take some time for me to update again probably until the start of the winter break.**

**I have received very few reviews and I hope that I will soon start to get more.**


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